The Leaves of Konoha
by platedlizard
Summary: Just prior to the Uchiha Massacre Itachi comforts Naruto after an assassination attempt.


**Title: **The Leaves of Konoha

**Rating:** T+

**Genre:** Gen/Angst

**Characters:** Itachi, Naruto

**Warnings:** Unbetaed like whoa.

**Word Count: **770

**Disclaimer: **Naruto ain't mine, and I make no money from this story.

**Summery: **Just prior to the Uchiha Massacre Itachi comforts Naruto after an assassination attempt.

The rest of the squad arrived within moments. The ANBU glanced once at the shivering boy huddled behind him against the wall of the alley and rolled one of the prisoners over with his boot, he was a distant clansmen who had lost his wife to the fox, so his motive for the attack on the boy appeared to be clear.

But, as Itachi knew, appearances could be deceiving.

He turned back to the boy and knelt down, parting his blood soaked hair. The cut was shallow but long, it would need stitches. The boy whimpered under his touch, the blood and the shade of the alley darkening his normally blond hair. For a moment he resembled Sasuke.

"How's the boy?" Hound asked behind him.

"Scalp wound. Messy but shallow. I'll take him to the hospital."

Hound grunted, and anything else he might have said was cut off as Itachi cradled the whimpering boy and formed the seals for teleportation.

By the time the nurse returned to the exam room with the doctor the boy's whimpers had turned to full throated screams that owed more to terror then pain. The nurse had placed them in a soundproofed small room at the end of the hall, and silently the ANBU blessed her foresight, the child sounded like he was being skinned alive.

"We might have to sedate him," the doctor said.

"No." He could feel an edge to the boy's chakra that he didn't like. No telling what might come out if the boy fell asleep right now.

The doctor sighed, but didn't argue. "Then you're going to have to restrain him."

Itachi didn't answer, simply adjusting his grip on the child, pressing the boy's face to his chest. It was difficult to see the boy so close up, so he removed his mask. It didn't matter if they saw him, after all. Soon it wouldn't matter who knew he was in ANBU.

All too soon.

Pulling he attention away from his upcoming mission he returned it to the child in his arms. The demon vessel was nearly the same age as his brother and he found himself rubbing the boy's back and murmuring reassuring nonsense as the screams turned to huge, shuddering sobs. The doctor injected Novocain around the cut and stitched it up. Itachi took a damp wash cloth soaked in some kind of disinfectant from the nurse and gently wiped the blood off the child as the doctor checked him over for any other injuries, remembering as he did so doing something similar for Sasuke just a month before when his brother had hurt himself practicing. A sudden pang made him pause, he wasn't even gone yet, and already he missed Sasuke.

He wondered who was going to clean the blood off his brother and hold him as he screamed.

"ANBU-san?" the boy asked.

"Yes?"

"Why don't people like me?" The boy blinked huge blue eyes at him. It was a fair question and for a moment Itachi was tempted to answer it. So very soon now he was going to slaughter everyone he cared for, what did one more broken law matter? He opened his mouth to answer, and then closed it again. He was already going to destroy the life of one child, he did not have the right to destroy the life of another by telling him he was a monster.

"We like you," he answered, instead. The boy looked at him, confused. "The ANBU."

"Why?"

The doctor and the nurse had already exited the room, the nurse laden with the used supplies. Hound entered and looked at him, Itachi couldn't see his face due to the mask, but he could feel the man's curiosity rolling off of him. He thought carefully about the boy's question. _Why?_ _You're the Fourth's Legacy. Our greatest weapon. _

_A monster, like us._

"You belong to Konoha," he said, at last.

The boy looked to Hound, who nodded. Through the window in the door Itachi could see two more ANBU standing guard. They looked completely professional, but he knew all three well enough to know they worried. This was the closest any of the assassination attempts had come, and for a member of the police to be involved…

Well, that wouldn't matter for much longer. Konoha will soon be free of the stain of his family's betrayal. He was sure this assassination attempt was related, the clan trying to remove a threat before it had a chance to grow.

Idly he reached out and stroked the boy's blond bangs away from his face.

"We belong to Konoha, heart and soul."


End file.
